


Reunion

by mothicalcreatures (laelreenia)



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types, Les Misérables - Schönberg/Boublil, Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/F, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Pre-Relationship, Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-16
Updated: 2016-06-16
Packaged: 2018-07-15 09:26:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7216882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laelreenia/pseuds/mothicalcreatures
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As a child Eponine took after her parents in her treatment of Cosette. Which was cruel. Years down the road, both girls find themselves attending the same high school and Eponine has a chance to make amends.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reunion

**Author's Note:**

> Fill for an anon on tumblr for my queer media week. (This ends on June 18th 2016, [here's the post](http://transmanscottsummers.tumblr.com/post/145912859988/transmanscottsummers-transmanscottsummers) , if you want to check it out and send me a prompt.)

The new girl was really attractive, and also vaguely familiar. They’d had first period together and apparently had the same lunch block as well, though Eponine was content to watch from a distance instead of actively engage the girl. For now at least, she was definitely too cute to pass up asking out and the bi pride pin on her backpack meant that Eponine didn’t have to worry about her being straight. 

And dear god, what was she reading, was that… It was.  _ The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For  _ by Alison Bechdel. Dear god, she had to date this girl. She wasn’t gonna ask her on a date _now_  though. She would do what any self respecting and vaguely broody high school senior would do and wait until school let out and then catch the beauty before she got on the bus, or… judging by her appearance she probably had her own car. Eponine wasn’t actually all that broody, it was just an aesthetic she cultivated. It was slightly superior to her normal fucking exhausted. She supposed exhausted could easily be mistaken for broody too.

It was thankfully, not very hard to locate the girl when school let out. The classroom where Eponine’s last class of the day was held, was right near the door to the parking lot, so all she had to do was run outside and wait for the pretty girl to appear. Pretty girl did appear. Pretty girl turned white as a sheet when she saw Eponine and turned to walk in the other direction. 

That… wasn’t how this was supposed to go. Eponine almost ran after her, but decided not to. She wasn’t going to chase down someone who _clearly_  did not want to talk to her. 

Maybe this had to do with that vague familiar feeling. If she’d known the girl when they were children, well, that would be reason for that expression, Eponine had not been a nice a child. She liked to think she’d mostly grown out of that. Well, it had been more, she’d made an active choice to not be like her parents and changed her behavior accordingly. 

Eponine got to school early the next day so she could lounge around in her first period classroom and maybe catch pretty girl to talk. She regretted now not having paid attention when roll was being called the day before. The girl did arrive early, like Eponine hoped, though she hesitated when she saw Eponine was already in the classroom.

Eponine tried to smile at the girl.

The girl sighed. “What do you want from me?”

“I- I was thinking a name first,” Eponine said cautiously. “I didn’t catch it in class yesterday.”

The sigh of relief was probably not a good sign. Neither was the girl steeling herself as she sat down in a seat several rows away from Eponine.  
“It’s Euphrasie,” She said. Eponine didn’t recognize that name. “But most people call me Cosette.”

Oh. _Oh_. Shit. Well that sent all of Eponine’s plans to ask her out flying out the window. 

“You were looking for me yesterday, weren’t you? I thought you’d remembered me but that wasn’t it.”

“I  was gonna ask you out,” Eponine admitted. 

Cosette glared at Eponine and Eponine regretted the admission instantly. 

“That’s not the plan anymore,” Eponine said.

“Why, am I still not worth the dirt under your shoe?”

“No, because I don’t- you need to be friends before you date someone, and we’re nowhere close. Besides, if I’d ask you out to do anything it would be to apologize.”

Cosette was silent, but paying attention so Eponine continued.

“I was a shitty kid and I learned that from my parents, but now I’ve got to unlearn it, and I’m trying. We moved so you know, there hasn’t been a lot of chances to make amends with the people I hurt. And I probably hurt you the most and if there’s one person I’d want to apologize to the most, that’s definitely you.” It felt good to get all that out.

Cosette remained quiet for a while longer. “Hearing that doesn’t mean much if your actions won’t follow through.”

Eponine nodded. She knew that. 

“But I suppose,” Cosette continued. “That I will give you a second chance.”

A second chance was frankly more than Eponine would have given herself. Cosette seemed entirely too good to be real. She supposed that the man who had adopted her had been exactly the kind and loving parent that she’d needed. 

“So are you going to invite me out for a proper apology?” Cosette asked.

“What? Oh, yeah, uh sure, if you want to.” So eloquent Eponine, Grantaire would be cackling if he’d heard that. 

“I think we should get to know each other,” Cosette said. “If I am to fully accept your apology I want to be able to see that I can trust you.”

“Fair enough,” Eponine said. “There’s this shithole of a coffee place I know, you’ll love it.”

Cosette raised an eyebrow. “That doesn’t sound promising.”

“The drinks are great, but the food’s crap, there’s a bakery nearby that has much better eats.”

“Alright. I’ll have to take your word for it.”

The conversation ended then when another few students walked into the room. 

At lunch they spoke again briefly and made plans to meet up that Sunday at the coffee shop.

  
  


“I want to make it clear that this isn’t a date,” Cosette said, sitting down across from Eponine at the table. 

“I know, it’s an apology outing, and I’m paying,” Eponine said. She took a deep breath. “Look I’m-”

Cosette shook her head. “Don’t. I got the verbal apology at school. I- I don’t know what I’m doing.”

“Me neither,” Eponine said.

Cosette sighed, laughing just a little. “Why don’t you finish what you were going to say.”

Eponine nodded. “I wanted to say I’m sorry. I don’t think those words came out of my mouth in that order at school. My parents spoiled me when I was little and I took their word as like the word of god, I think most kids do that with their parents at first. Not that I’m trying to shift blame, it was still me doing the shitty things. I think my wake up call came when it became my responsibility to take care of Azelma and Gavroche. My parents decided they couldn’t be arsed anymore. So I was suddenly the adult and behaviors of theirs that I had previously found amusing or funny, stuff I’d done too, weren’t anymore. And then my dad lost his job and we moved. And I tried to start over.”

“I’m glad you’ve made an effort to change,” Cosette said. “Being that new girl who comes in midway through the year is a little less stressful when there’s someone you already sort of know.”

Eponine smiled. “Yeah, why is that anyways?”

“My papa got a better job offer than the one he had,” Cosette said. “So we moved to follow that.”

Eponine nodded. “You wanna actually get something to drink?”

“I think I’d actually rather you show me that bakery you were talking about,” Cosette said. “I’m more hungry than anything.”

“Alright then,” Eponine said. “To the bakery it is. Never have the food here just, it’s super sketchy. I wasn’t kidding when I said this place was a shithole. The redeeming qualities are the drinks and I’m friends with a few of the baristas so I get free drinks sometimes. I’ll introduce you to them some time, so if you ever come on your own, they can hook you up.”

Cosette laughed a little. “That would be nice, thank you.”

Cosette had to admit that she felt nervous about the prospect of meeting Eponine’s friends, but Cosette fancied herself to be a pretty good judge of character. She would trust her instincts when it came to Eponine’s friends.

As Eponine led the way to the bakery the thought popped that going on an actual date with Eponine, sometime far in the future of course, might not be so bad. She did seem a very different person than Cosette had known when she was little and Cosette found she liked the thought of starting over with Eponine.

**Author's Note:**

> Please be kind, it's been such a long time since I've written anything Les Mis.


End file.
